William Toland retired as Music Director of the Concord Band in 1995.
As a gift on his retirement, the Concord Band commissioned James Curnow to
compose a new work for concert band based on a Christmas theme that the band
could play at its Holiday Pops Concert every year.
Mr. Curnow had been commissioned to compose several works for the Concord Band,
inclduing Five Concord Diversions (1987) and Welsh Variants
(1993).
The Overture to a Winter Festival is an original work based on snippets
of various holiday songs and carols.
The work is quickly becoming a standard in the holiday concert band repertoire.